“Send me a postcard from Rick's Café,” said my movie buff friend as she saw me off to Morocco. She was (get a life) reliving the Bogart-Bergman classic “Casablanca.”

“Sure,” I said, waving goodbye. I hadn’t the heart to remind her that the film was shot on a Hollywood sound stage in the 1940s and that Rick’s Café opened in Casablanca only three years ago.

Nine short miles across the Straits of Gibraltar from the Southern Coast of Spain, Morocco, the world’s westernmost Arab country, looks both ways—to its ancient roots in the Middle East and north to its European neighbors. Long an outpost of the Roman Empire, this territory was overrun in the seventh-century by Arab invaders from the Middle East. The conquerors promptly established Muslim rule over the indigenous Berber people and set about building the first of the medieval walled cites, medinas, that have made Morocco a living museum—living because the fabled medinas in the ancient cities of Marrakesh, Fez and Meknes have never stopped teeming with life. Thousands of families live in these timeworn enclaves, meet and greet in their convoluted streets, worship in the mosques of their fathers and shop for the daily bread in their bustling souks.

Then there’s the European Morocco, a legacy of the French who occupied the country from 1912 to 1959. Rather than tamper with historical treasures, they added their own new neighborhoods of broad tree-lined boulevards, modern dwellings, hotels and business centers. By the time they were forced out of Morocco, French had become the second language of the country (English is spoken, too), and bakers were turning out the crustiest breads and flakiest croissants outside of Paris.

When I asked why a group of 20-somethings in designer jeans were gossiping away in perfect French instead of Arabic at the next table in the Marrakesh McDonalds, I was told it made them seem more avant-garde. They are part of a new generation that is leaving the djellaba to grandma in exchange for the freedom of a new international lifestyle. Jetsetters and celebrities like our own Brad Pitt and Angelina are frequent vacationers here. In their wake, the city is seeing the opening of new high fashion boutiques, trendy restaurants with international gourmet menus, and to the tourist’s delight, nightclub restaurants with belly dancing (not a part of the culture here).

Why were we wolfing down Mac fries at 5 p.m. in this city of wonderful couscous and tajines? Because we’d swapped lunch for the dizzying tiled courtyards of one of the city’s best-preserved treasures, the 14th-century Koranic school, Ali Ben Youssef. Then, we clambered around the ruins of the 16th-century Badi Palace, snapping photos of the migrating storks who build their nests on its crumbling towers. (Restaurants in Morocco don’t serve dinner till eight.)

Marrakesh’s reputation as a raving beauty is well earned. Picture a city of one million people whose buildings are all (by law) done in shades of coral to match the 10th-century pressed mud walls that encircle the old medina for more than five miles. No building is higher than six stories, and tiled roofs echo the grayed green of the fronds of the surrounding palm groves. Marrakesh and other treasured cities like Fez and Meknes are oases of culture and keepers of history in this land of Lawrence-of-Arabia deserts, snow-capped mountains, humble villages, and its two largest cities, high rise Casablanca and Morocco’s modern capital Rabat.

"More than half of the country’s citizens are Berbers, and many of these have blended into mainstream society, but Berber villagers still thrive in the mountains, clinging to their tribal languages and music, tending the sheep and turning out tightly woven carpets that are prized throughout the world."

For the visitor, Marrakesh can also be an oasis of another kind, offering unsurpassed luxury in its sprawling resorts, five-star hotels and the latest rage, the riad. The formula for this upscale urban inn is simple: Join together a small row of centuries-old dwellings, each built around its central garden, into one small exclusive hotel of maybe six rooms or more. Update and then lavish your riad with a steaming hamam (Arab spa), swimming pool and an Arabian Nights décor with chiffon-veiled beds and at least one gurgling petal-strewn fountain. Offer gourmet dining and costumed attendants who know the wishes of their guests before they do.

If only there was time to enjoy it!

Even as I lolled on satin riad pillows with sweet mint tea and honey cakes at my side, Jama el Fna was calling. Within minutes I was hanging onto the seat of my battered red taxi as we dodged a Mercedes, evaded two bikers and skirted a tourist horse and carriage. Finally we met our match, slowing to a crawl behind a spindly-legged donkey lifting his nuzzle to wail at the sky. The family of seven in the cart he was pulling waved at the driver and smiled.